CENTRE DECIDED TO GRANT EQUAL PENSION TO ALL MAJOR GENERALS- 10 YEARS AFTER SC ORDER

Centre decided to grant equal pension to all major generals and their equivalent ranks in all three wings of defence forces- 10 years after SC Order

10 years after SC order, Centre agrees to grant equal pension to all major generals

NEW DELHI: After a decade-long struggle for equal pension, all retired major generals, whether they superannuated before or after 1996, will get the same pension, as the Centre on Tuesday told the Supreme Court that it had decided to end the discriminatory monthly payouts.

Retired major generals, through senior advocate Nidhesh Gupta, had been fighting for more than a decade and had succeeded before the apex court, which in 2008 had ruled that “the pay of all pensioners in the rank of major general and its equivalent rank in the other two wings of the defence services be notionally fixed at the rate given to similar officers of the same rank after the revision of pay scales with effect from January 1, 1996”.

The SC had ticked off the Centre for fixing different pensions for major generals, one for those who retired before 1996 and another for those who retired after 1996.

On Tuesday, additional solicitor general Pinky Anand informed a three-judge bench led by CJI Dipak Misra that the Centre had decided to give equal pension to retired major generals and their equivalent ranks in all three wings of defence forces irrespective of whether they retired before or after 1996.